We ran out of time and didn't manage to get any decorations up at all, before we left Wimberley after Thanksgiving. It was just breaking my heart to think of my poor little house sitting up here all sad and forlorn, with nary a bow, garland, nor twinkle light to be seen. I know a lot of people from up north don't decorate their Christmas trees until the last minute, but to me that's akin to sex with no foreplay. I'm all about the foreplay.
I learned at a very early age that ecstasy is 90% anticipation. I was about seven years old when Barbie dolls first came on the scene. I wanted one so bad, I could taste it. Fortunately, my parents wouldn't just go out and buy me one. I say fortunately, because I learned one of my most valuable life lessons from that. Christmas was eons away, so my only choice was to save up the $3.00 myself. Since I only received 25 cents a week allowance, that meant it would take at least 12 weeks, if I didn't spend a penny on anything else (which was a big IF). Everyday I took the money out of my bank to count it, and went into lengthy day-dreams about all the wonderful things I would do with my Barbie, once I finally had her - the clothes I would make for her, the house and furniture I would improvise, the fun I would have taking her with me to my friends' houses. I also spent an inordinate amount of time trying to decide which hair style and color I wanted my Barbie to have. The red "bubble" hair-do won. At last the day finally arrived, when Mom drove me up to JoJo's toy store to make the big purchase. It still stands out in memory as a major highlight. Unfortunately, it was all downhill after that, for I discovered that everything gets old after a while, and nothing was quite as much fun as all that delicious anticipation.
The same thing goes for vacations. I had the great good fortune to belong to an amazing Girl Scout troop, consisting of 30 girls who stayed together from 1st grade through our senior year. The reason we stuck it out so long is that when we were young and first heard about the Girl Scout Chalet in Switzerland, we told our leader that she should take us all to Europe some day, and she said "Why not?" We worked towards that goal for years, holding all kinds of bake sales and fundraisers. When we were fifteen or sixteen, it finally came to pass. Unfortunately, in spite of all our fundraising efforts, each girl was still going to have to come up with a sum that was just out of the question for my family. My leader refused to leave anyone behind, so she came up with a plan where I could pay her back after I'd found a summer job. The trip was truly amazing, but by the following summer, when I landed a job at the local fabric store, the memories were starting to fade. Each week, when I had to turn over my hard-earned paycheck, another important life-lesson was brought home to me - that it's much more fun to save and pay for pleasure that's yet to come, than it is to keep paying for months, or even years, after it's all over and done with!
Which brings us back to Christmas decorations. To me, it's all about the anticipation. I start thinking about it in September, or before, and about the time everyone else is just getting really cranked up, I start getting depressed at the thought of it all being over with for another whole year. After Christmas day, I can't wait to get it all packed up and put away, because it's just too sad to look at - like trying to drag a dead horse through the mud. I was afraid that if I waited until we got back to Wimberley on the 17th, I would end up saying "Christmas is almost over with now, so why bother putting up any decorations at this point?" This is a long and convoluted explanation for why I got up at the crack of dawn yesterday, threw a few things in a bag, and headed to Wimberley to start decorating, while John headed off to deliver some goodies to kids in need.
Thanks to our recent remodeling, we actually have room for a tree in our living room this year. I managed to get furniture moved and the tree set up, only to discover that the lights on the upper part of the tree were no longer working. We have two storage rooms in the house, one in the garage, big cabinets above the closets, and an attic. I searched every single space after I got the tree set up. In one I found the box of nutcrackers. In another was all of the garland and icicle lights for the porch. In yet another was my crate of Christmas dishes. But nowhere did I find the two things I wanted most - the crate containing the tree skirt I quilted when we lived in Indonesia and the antique lace and velvet stockings Mom made for us years ago, and the crate full of ornaments we have collected over the years. That can only mean one of two things - both of them bad. Either they are in that little hayloft-like space over the garage, which can only be reached by a treacherous extension ladder, and which is probably inhabited by bats and who knows what else, or they somehow got lost in the move - a thought too horrible even to consider.
I learned at a very early age that ecstasy is 90% anticipation. I was about seven years old when Barbie dolls first came on the scene. I wanted one so bad, I could taste it. Fortunately, my parents wouldn't just go out and buy me one. I say fortunately, because I learned one of my most valuable life lessons from that. Christmas was eons away, so my only choice was to save up the $3.00 myself. Since I only received 25 cents a week allowance, that meant it would take at least 12 weeks, if I didn't spend a penny on anything else (which was a big IF). Everyday I took the money out of my bank to count it, and went into lengthy day-dreams about all the wonderful things I would do with my Barbie, once I finally had her - the clothes I would make for her, the house and furniture I would improvise, the fun I would have taking her with me to my friends' houses. I also spent an inordinate amount of time trying to decide which hair style and color I wanted my Barbie to have. The red "bubble" hair-do won. At last the day finally arrived, when Mom drove me up to JoJo's toy store to make the big purchase. It still stands out in memory as a major highlight. Unfortunately, it was all downhill after that, for I discovered that everything gets old after a while, and nothing was quite as much fun as all that delicious anticipation.
The same thing goes for vacations. I had the great good fortune to belong to an amazing Girl Scout troop, consisting of 30 girls who stayed together from 1st grade through our senior year. The reason we stuck it out so long is that when we were young and first heard about the Girl Scout Chalet in Switzerland, we told our leader that she should take us all to Europe some day, and she said "Why not?" We worked towards that goal for years, holding all kinds of bake sales and fundraisers. When we were fifteen or sixteen, it finally came to pass. Unfortunately, in spite of all our fundraising efforts, each girl was still going to have to come up with a sum that was just out of the question for my family. My leader refused to leave anyone behind, so she came up with a plan where I could pay her back after I'd found a summer job. The trip was truly amazing, but by the following summer, when I landed a job at the local fabric store, the memories were starting to fade. Each week, when I had to turn over my hard-earned paycheck, another important life-lesson was brought home to me - that it's much more fun to save and pay for pleasure that's yet to come, than it is to keep paying for months, or even years, after it's all over and done with!
Which brings us back to Christmas decorations. To me, it's all about the anticipation. I start thinking about it in September, or before, and about the time everyone else is just getting really cranked up, I start getting depressed at the thought of it all being over with for another whole year. After Christmas day, I can't wait to get it all packed up and put away, because it's just too sad to look at - like trying to drag a dead horse through the mud. I was afraid that if I waited until we got back to Wimberley on the 17th, I would end up saying "Christmas is almost over with now, so why bother putting up any decorations at this point?" This is a long and convoluted explanation for why I got up at the crack of dawn yesterday, threw a few things in a bag, and headed to Wimberley to start decorating, while John headed off to deliver some goodies to kids in need.
Thanks to our recent remodeling, we actually have room for a tree in our living room this year. I managed to get furniture moved and the tree set up, only to discover that the lights on the upper part of the tree were no longer working. We have two storage rooms in the house, one in the garage, big cabinets above the closets, and an attic. I searched every single space after I got the tree set up. In one I found the box of nutcrackers. In another was all of the garland and icicle lights for the porch. In yet another was my crate of Christmas dishes. But nowhere did I find the two things I wanted most - the crate containing the tree skirt I quilted when we lived in Indonesia and the antique lace and velvet stockings Mom made for us years ago, and the crate full of ornaments we have collected over the years. That can only mean one of two things - both of them bad. Either they are in that little hayloft-like space over the garage, which can only be reached by a treacherous extension ladder, and which is probably inhabited by bats and who knows what else, or they somehow got lost in the move - a thought too horrible even to consider.
* * * * *
Well, I guess it's true what they say. Things always look better in the morning. I don't know when I have spent such a wonderful, decadent day. Other than a quick trip over to the River Pub for a Baja fish taco fix, I didn't leave the house all day. Although I started the day off in a grinch-like mood, it was no match for the Food Network's non-stop Christmas blitz on TV. Normally, I never turn a television on in the daytime, but I guess I was feeling a bit lonely out here all by myself, so I flipped it on for background noise. In addition to having Paula Deen and Emeril to share their best holiday recipes with me, I also discovered two channels that were showing back-to-back Christmas movies all weekend long. I am such a sucker for holiday movies - the cheesier, the better. Although I still haven't found the ornaments, I did come across a box full of old Christmas photos. I was just going to dump them in a basket on the coffee table, for the kids to enjoy when they arrive, but next thing I knew, I had gone through the whole pile, one by one, as well as an entire Christmas movie!
I decided to go ahead and plug the tree in, even if it was only half-lit, and totally devoid of decorations. It seems that even a Charlie Brown tree is better than nothing, and I started to feel a bit better. Next I went out onto the porch and draped some garland around the porch rails, with big red bows. And felt even better. By the time I had the icicle lights hanging from the eaves, I was feeling almost jovial. I came back inside, brewed some of that blood orange tea, lit a few pine-scented candles, and spent the rest of the day alternating between arranging nutcrackers, crying over sappy movies, and drooling over yummy looking food (and those yummy looking Il Divo guys who were doing a concert on PBS!). Some time mid-afternoon, I heard something go click, and the lighting in the room seemed to change. When I glanced up, I discovered that my tree was fully lit, from head to toe! And so it seems, just like the grinch, with each thing I had done today to make the house more festive and welcoming, my heart had grown another size. Now, all is right with the world, and I can go back to Houston, with the memory of this wonderful day, and the picture of my twinkling house, to get me through the rough spots (which turned out to include the stomach bug from hell).
I decided to go ahead and plug the tree in, even if it was only half-lit, and totally devoid of decorations. It seems that even a Charlie Brown tree is better than nothing, and I started to feel a bit better. Next I went out onto the porch and draped some garland around the porch rails, with big red bows. And felt even better. By the time I had the icicle lights hanging from the eaves, I was feeling almost jovial. I came back inside, brewed some of that blood orange tea, lit a few pine-scented candles, and spent the rest of the day alternating between arranging nutcrackers, crying over sappy movies, and drooling over yummy looking food (and those yummy looking Il Divo guys who were doing a concert on PBS!). Some time mid-afternoon, I heard something go click, and the lighting in the room seemed to change. When I glanced up, I discovered that my tree was fully lit, from head to toe! And so it seems, just like the grinch, with each thing I had done today to make the house more festive and welcoming, my heart had grown another size. Now, all is right with the world, and I can go back to Houston, with the memory of this wonderful day, and the picture of my twinkling house, to get me through the rough spots (which turned out to include the stomach bug from hell).
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